Reviewing Benchmarks for Early Learning and Development is a challenging task due to the length of this task. Once you really delve into reading and looking at it, you begin to see how valuable these books truly are for those who care for and teach young children. These criteria recognize the importance of the first five years of a child's life and how children of this age rely heavily on adults for their development and learning. These benchmarks do not follow any theory, but blend all different theoretical perspectives with scientific research. The purpose of these benchmarks is to help early childhood programs know what children should know and things they should be able to do when they enter. Kindergarten. One of the goals of the Benchmarks is for teachers and professionals to share the tool with their students' parents so that they know what developmental expectations they should expect from their children. The benchmarks are divided into four critical stages: 18 months, 36 months, 60 months and entry into kindergarten. The benchmarks are not intended to be used as a guide for child development and should not be used as a checklist for teachers or families. This document is also not intended to serve as the basis for a curriculum for teachers. The benchmarks are not intended to be used as an assessment instrument to determine any eligibility for services or programs and they should not be used to assess the functioning or skills of children for an individual education plan or a individual family service plan or to collect statewide information. on the status of children.These criteria should recognize all children as capable of learning, achieving and making developmental progress, regardless of any intertwined middle of paper ....... Language development has three aspects: content (vocabulary and meaning), form (grammatical structure or syntax), and use (function). Communication requires a lot of prior knowledge and skills, and children communicate before they master real symbolic language. Literacy development is defined as encompassing reading, writing, other creative or analytical skills, and environmental understanding. The Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks can be used for children from birth until they enter kindergarten. The benchmarks can be applied to the basics in a classroom and given to parents so they know the basic guidelines for their child's learning and development. Parents want to know if their child is developing "normally" or typically, and guidelines like these, in condensed form, can provide these parents with some of that information...